I’m home!

I’m home and I’m cold! Last few photos up on the photo page… beach sunset shots, the infamous scooter, some more Wats…

More photos…

Check out some more photos of Sri Lanka and Thailand so far… Highlights include Gemma and I posing as UN workers, lots of shiny Thai temples, Vicki and my exploits amongst the hilltribes of Thailand with elephants and bamboo rafts…

But don’t mention photos to Vix – there has been some awful accident which has wiped all the photos off her digital camera since September… boooo

Maldivian ladies

Couple more photos for you. We had our leaving party with the guys from work on Friday, and they made us traditional Maldivian outfits to wear – had no idea how they would turn out since I’m not accustomed to wearing shiny green satin on a regular basis, but actually they were great and made us feel a bit like princesses! The girls we work with are so kind, and we had so much fun. And the outfits went down a storm around Male’ – the old guy who sits outside our apartment’s jaw hit the floor when we stepped out and then he couldn’t stop giggling, and we were nearly the cause of several motorbike accidents – we’re going to feel a bit pedestrian when we get back to London and no-one pays us the slightest bit of attention…

Underwater photography

Yesterday I did my underwater photograhy specialist dive, so here’s some photos of general underwater stuff taken by me and Andy (who is way ahead of Gemma and I and has already done underwater photography, deep dives, drift dives, navigation dives and a night dive and has as a result now completed his Advanced Open Water). Gemma and Andy did their Fish ID specialist dive at the same time so will be able to tell you what stuff we’ve taken photos of actually is! I just pointed and clicked… it’s harder than you’d think – the decreasing light available as you go down even just another metre, backscatter of the flash off the plankton and a moderate current meaning you can’t hold the camera still make for some… “interesting” shots – is that a fish or a rock?

Not so snappy snaps

Not being up with the digital age I’ve got a couple of rolls of film developed and put onto CD to share with y’all in addition to the ones from Gemma’s digital camera. I’ve been sitting in front of the computer waiting for photos to upload for ages now, but anyhow, there should be a couple more photos up on the flickr site very soon…

Autographs on request

This last week has been on the edge of surreal… since the last post, we have been extras in a pop video, dived with sea turtles, spent a couple of afternoons making large batches of scones and Victoria sponge in order to host an English Tea Party (complete with elaborate costumes and games of homemade twister with a bunch of Maldivian ladies in headscarves – check out the photos), and even advised ActionAid on their HR policy…sort of…

The music video is to accompany some songs written by local Maldivian pop stars for Care Society to raise funds. The first we knew of it was when we were called from our desks to come downstairs to an assembly in the Care Society school, odd since it was midday and no longer term-time. It soon became obvious that we were the token white people in the background of a video shoot of the kids singing their school song. I’m ashamed to say I got horrendous giggles since we had no idea of the words, and neither did half the kids. There were also far too many members of the film crew (true arty types, one replete with amazingly fake-looking orange dyed beard) for the amount of filming they were doing – there only appeared to be one cameraman and at least 3 others on hand at any one time to move the tripod up or down and generally get in the way. We’re seeing the finished result at the CD launch in a swanky hotel tomorrow night – I dread to think what Gemma and I are going to look like, lurking in the background trying not to catch each others’ eye and to look as though we know the words. Andy obviously out-performed us on film since he got to star in the next scene involving taking the children swimming at the Artificial Beach. He’d like it to be known that he will happily sign autographs on request.

Work-wise, whilst we’ve been here we’ve identified some extra work for ourselves to do around organisational structure and job roles and responsibilities within Care Society. This has been supported by the Executive Director, and now some guys from Action Aid International have turned up to do some more of this kind of stuff because of the Tsunami projects funded by AAI and run through Care Society and the necessity for an exit strategy when the funding ends next year, so we’ve been able to work with them to share the work we’ve already done and also our recommendations for how to take it forward – it’s been great to feel the work we’re doing has the potential to have a real impact on how Care Society operates.

Last weekend we checked out another resort: in spite of a poor start off the blocks when they didn’t appear to have any record of us staying and despite having a tray-full of fruit cocktails to greet arriving guests, wouldn’t give Andy one cos they were “reserved for VIPs” (obviously news of his starring role in the pop video hadn’t yet reached them), Meeru Resort turned out to be the best yet, based on our increasingly strict criteria of 1. quality and quantity of buffet food, 2. cocktail drinkability, 3. beach size, 4. pool size and perhaps most importantly, 5. size of the bill on leaving. Photos of our energetic kayaking (also known as capsizing) around Meeru are on the flickr site.

And finally, you’ll be glad to know I’ve tried my first dive since the end of the ear saga and no problems as yet, yay! It was another amazing open water dive along the edge of a reef where sea turtles hang out, and we saw 2 hefty ones appearing out of the darkness swimming parallel to the reef wall towards us and then underneath and away. I did completely freak myself out during an exercise where I had to fill my mask with water and then clear it since it was only when I’d filled it up, eyes screwed shut, that I realised in the 4 weeks since I dived last I’d completely forgotten how to get rid of the water – not good when you’ve got your eyes tight shut cos of your mask full of sea water, you’re trying to remember to keep breathing so your lungs don’t explode and you cant ask for help cos you’re in 10m of water with a regulator in your mouth. For future reference: tip head UP and breathe out to clear the mask, Amy, UP, not down…

Caption Competition

Check out the photos page for some shots Gemma took in Thinadhoo last week. There’s some crackers of the workshops – see the immense excitement on the faces of the participants…!

Swimming with the fishes 2

Our Dive Master Gert-Jan (a crazy Dutch guy with his name stencilled across the front of his wetsuit with one of those glittery t-shirt pens) had an underwater camera on our first dive so you can see the shots of me and Andy and a fish looking smooooooth on my AmesAbroad flickr photo page.

Photos…

Check out these photos… Takes a fair while to upload photos on the internet connection here but will try to add more every so often. xx

Another week…

…and another picture of the Maldives, this time of the capital of the Maldives, Male’, where I’ll be working. Pretty hey?!